Saturday, May 10, 2008

I know!!!! What happened to keeping up each Thursday? You don't have to tell me, I've been told by too many people already that I'm a slacker ... So slackerdom comes to a halt this morning, yes, a Saturday, not a Thursday.We've been busy.Scott watched the three kids ALONE this past weekend (Thursday through Sunday) as I went to AZ for ... keep up ... a baby shower, a retirement party, and a sealing all in two days. Mom and papa Pheel were sealed Saturday morning in the Mesa Temple which left us all on a high. Shaundra flew in from NY for the activities and Marilyn from UT also. The three of us girls put on Liz's baby shower Friday afternoon and then we all hustled over for mom's retirement party that night. We had a hilarious Saturday night playing barnyard rummy (thank you Annedria's Scott for your somewhat successful memory on how to play) at Dad and Kim's place. Sadly, I flew back to real life Sunday morning getting home in time to find out that our section of the stake has been made it's own stake. We now belong to the Frisco Stake instead of the Carollton Stake. What an exciting way to get home. The growth of the gospel here has been phenomenal!Scott fly's to AZ next weekend for his sister Sarah's graduation from UofA in pharmaceuticals. He gets 5 days for one event and I got 3 days for 3 events ... that just doesn't seem very fair!!!!Scott's been busy at work. 'Tis the season for Disaster Recovery and it has kept him on his toes for the last month and will continue for another one or two months. We should have him back by mid June. (By the way, if I haven't said it recently, I HATE salary. Each time he's salary, we make less money because of no overtime and we see him less, less, less!!!) Anyway, the one benefit is that with his crossover seniority, he'll be coming up on 10 years next year and we will be enjoying 4 weeks of vacation a year from here on out. Of course, just as soon as we get it, we'll invariably move to a different company and have to start from scratch again. So goes life!! : )Colbey's end of the year concert was this past week and he and another sax were the only soloist for all the groups that played. He is truly talented on the sax! He plays in the regular band group and also in the Jazz group. His solo was in the Jazz group performance. He stood up in front of the group playing during an entire song. It was so fun to see him!!! My quiet techno is turning into a little stud!!Landon makes me laugh everyday (there is also some internal swearing nearly every day also)! This little ball of energy keeps us all on our toes and giggling. I swear, I should be losing more weight just trying to keep up with him! He currently is enamored by volcanoes. He has made several and one even exploded (thankfully not in the house). He loves to write and make laptops. This is a departure from the skate parks he was making and "selling" prior. He runs hysterically around the house chasing or running from Ryleigh just to hear her laugh and he just told me this week when I told him I wouldn't be purchasing his spring school pictures because we had just had much better pictures taken, that he hated those pictures and liked the school pictures because he was wearing his glasses in the school pictures. To be fair, he is sooooo cute in his glasses and I prefer him wearing them. He's such a lovebug! He's the one that I want to hold (tight to keep him from Tasmanian Devilling around the world) and squeeze. I imagine that confetti, popping sparkles and silly sounds would erupt from him as he burst in my arms. What a crazy nut he is!!!Ryleigh has allowed me to put my clips in her hair, and .... she leaves them it!!!! We make such a big deal about how pretty she is wearing them and she loves to be pretty so they stay. Look mom, no need for a haircut! Scott and I are both adamant about her not cutting her hair. (Colbey would love for us to say the same for him!) We've indoctrinated her into the world of Veggie Tales this week and now she has a hard time deciding between Scooby-Doo and Orange (that's what she calls Veggie Tales). She and Landon had their yearly physicals last week and the doctor said she was worried about Ryleigh's vocal cords because they were so raspy and low sounding. It was hard not to snort with laughter when I told the doctor that she hadn't been yelling or crying to produce that sound (I should let you know this was not our normal doctor, he was on vacation) but that she always sounded like that. She's going to have a Kathleen Turner voice. I've always said she was an alto! The doctor definitely didn't believe me but praised our household for not having and watching television. I explained that even though we don't watch television, we still watch movies and she said that was fine because it was a family thing to do together and monitored unlike "filthy" television. (Ok, so I put in the word "filthy" but that's the word that her face was saying.)On to me! I finished the 100 miles a day early! As you can see on the left hand side of the blog. 100 miles, 15 pounds, 3 blisters and 1 pulled muscle. I feel great! Ok, a little sore in the right calf which is still tender, but otherwise great. For those of you who remember my "Grumpies" entry from last month, I want you to know that I have been angelic on my eating! In fact, it's not even hard anymore. I'm on the road to conquering my biggest challenge in my life right now. I probably shouldn't have written that because now Satan will be looking for a different chink in the armor. On the flight to AZ last week, I was reading in the BofM and the story of Ether got me thinking. Why is it that I've never asked the Lord for certain blessings? I got through something like 12 chapters and thoughts and ideas were swirling around through my little brain that I had never considered before. It was a real pleasure for me to have that time to do a large block of reading all at once! All this to say, I'm not as good as Ether YET but I'm feeling pretty good and working on perfection (surpassing Mary Poppins at nearly perfect)!I'm grateful for the gospel and the truth that I know and the knowledge that the Lord loves me even with all my shortcomings. I know that all things are possible through God and someday, all my questions will be answered, but until then, I'm happy where I am and where I'm going.I (Scott just ribbed me about blogging on a Saturday instead of a Thursday and shame on me for keeping our public waiting : )) so now promise to get back onto my Thursday schedule!BTW - I just bought Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and started reading around 5pm Thursday evening. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. No sex, no swearing, and HOLY COW a good book for some fun reading!!!!!!! So let me tell you to buy it in the morning and start reading right away, otherwise you'll have a late night. (Shaundra, I still blame you for my lack of sleep!!!!)